I’m mad!

Full-day Kindergarten – that’s the topic. There was a letter to the editor in today’s TU about full-day Kindergarten. I read it hours ago, and I’m still mad.

I’m not a great fan of full-day Kindergarten. My district went to full-day this year, and I suspect it was driven as much by parents wanting a place for their kids all afternoon as it was by any educational concerns. I’m not sure we need our 5-year-olds to work harder. And I’m particularly worried about the annual cost, as my school tax bill sits waiting to be paid.

But I was swayed by some remarks from teachers who said it would give their students more time for art, music, library and playground.

The letter-writer today made that extra time sound like a BAD thing. He wrote: “So taxpayers will not be getting smarter children but instead kids who get extra hours of structured playtime.”

Playtime? Playtime? I love the way this writer chooses one word, playground, and extrapolates an entire argument, and completely ignores art, music and library time. Are these not important? Are these not educational? Are these not, in fact, VITAL?

But this writer chooses to ignore the increased time for art, music and reading, the very subjects which are the absolute soul of humanity, and which I think are more important for 5-year-olds than spelling and math and science.

Then he talks about academic performance. There’s no evidence, he says, that full-day Kindergarten increases “academic performance.” Well sure, since, academic performance is measured by things like the scores on math SATs! How about the effect of increased study of music and art and reading on literacy, on humanity, on the soul of the individual. Life just isn’t only about math scores! And anyway, dozens of studies indicate that an increase in the study of music at an early age DOES increase academic performance!

He just makes the assumption that full-day Kindergarten is only worthwhile if we can quantify the increase in “academic performance,” whatever the heck that means! What an incredibly narrow view.

Man, I’m mad.

Here’s the link to the letter: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=843662&category=LETTER

2 Responses

David, I also am not a fan of full day Kindergarten. In our case, our schools had to switch to it in order to keep state funding.

My first child had the privelege of a half day, while my second had to go through the “new and improved” full day program. Yes, she had two recess periods a day, and formal art, music, computer, gym, and library time, but she also became overtired and stressed (charming qualities in a five year old!) I know her Kindergarten experience was not nearly as fulfilling as her older brother’s, in spite of (or because of?) the extra three hours. She did not learn to read or add sooner, nor are her standardizied test scores any higher than his (their IQ’s are nearly equal).

While she did get the opportunity to attend the special area classes that her brother did not, I do not believe what she did there made the difficulties we faced with a full day schedule worthwhile. In fact, I will go out on a limb and say that my son probably had equal or greater exposure to art and music with his regular classroom teacher in the half day program as my daughter did with the special teachers in full day. They both had the same exceptional Kindergarten teacher, but when full day began, she was handed a thick binder of additional curriculum to get through by May, which her students were tested on, and upon which her job, and the school’s funding, relied! Despite having more time with her students, she now had more than twice as much material to cover, and less time to pull out the rhythm sticks or paint brushes! Whereas she would have music time two or three times a week in the classroom, and some sort of art nearly every day, she ironically no longer had time for that, and left it to the once a week specials. She also lost some of her ability to integrate the arts into the academics.

So yes, it’s good in theory to say that the students will have more time for arts education, but I think we need to look at how it really works out in reality. Additionally, we need to examine how the “benefits” of the full day schedule weigh against the stress that schedule places on our very young children. Finally, as you said, are we really doing this for the good of our children, or is it just to make life easier for overworked, overstressed parents?

Now, don’t even get me started on the whole “No Child Left Behind” can of worms!